Needle

What’s playing, beside the Dock.

macOS 26AppKit · Core AnimationVersion 1.0 Download for Mac (.zip) ★ Star on GitHub

Homebrew:

Needle in the corner right of the Dock on a 14-inch MacBook, showing Undertow by Marina Vale — On a 14-inch MacBook: the cover in the corner the Dock leaves, level with its icons.

The cover in the corner. The album art beside the Dock, with a soft shadow in its own colours. The title takes the cover’s colour.
Same album, same cover. A new track comes into focus the way a new listing does in Tape. From the same album, only the words change.
Click, swipe, done. Click the cover to pause, the title to see it large, and swipe with two fingers to skip.
Fits any Dock. Cover, words and clock on a big screen; beside a long Dock on a laptop, the cover alone.

Undertow by Marina Vale in focus — Undertow, in focus.

The title drifting up and blurring away while the cover stays sharp — 280 ms: the words drift up and blur.

The next title rising out of the blur — 420 ms: the next one rises.

Salt in the Air in focus, under the same cover — Same album: the cover never moved.

Tape left of the Dock and Needle right of it on a MacBook — Tape takes the left of the Dock, Needle the right.

The cover card: the cover large, the track, a scrubber and play controls — Click the title: the cover, large.

Appearance settings with a live preview of the corner — Appearance, with the corner as it looks now.

Built with AppKit, SwiftUI and Core Animation. Needle reads the same Now Playing information as Control Center, so it works with Music, Spotify, Podcasts and browsers. The records in these pictures are made up, and their covers are drawn in code.

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